Sort order on TV Show episodes

I am trying to figure out how to make iPad sort episodes by episode number rather than strictly by alphabetical order.

I bought the original Wifi Ipad on Apr 3. Transferred all my episodes (which are all coded correctly with Season and Ep #) and when I would select "24", they would all list out by episode # rather than sorted by title. Same with 5 other TV series.

I returned my Wifi and now own a iPad 3G and put everything back on it, but no matter what I try, everything is sorted by title, which makes watching TV shows in order completely useless.

I know some will say "just add a 1- in front of the title." You shouldn't have to do that.

I'm having the same problem. Mine sorted correctly too—right up until they didn't any more. No idea what changed, but all of the tags are present and correct (and the same as before).

In addition, the box art that I had tagged the tracks with has been replaced (as seen on the iPad) with a screen shot from the first episode and the white textual representation of the series title and season number that used to appear under the box art has disappeared. I have no idea what show I'm looking at (except in my case there's only one show on the device.)

This is on the iPad only—everything still appears "as it should" within iTunes on the Macintosh.

I've tried resorting within iTunes and re-syncing and deleting the content from the iPad and replacing it. No joy.

I have reported this behavior to Apple using the feedback mechanism and suggest others having this problem do the same.

I wish I'd read Johnathan Burger's message more carefully—the answer was there, I just glossed over it. Monte's reply put me in the right mindset. Indeed, once I added the track numbers (which would seem to be, but obviously is no, redundant given the episode fields in the video section) the episodes sort correctly and the box art is back.

I had a look at a TV episode that I'd purchased from the iTunes store and note that it too made use of the Track # field, as well as the Title, Artist and Album fields. I'll go back to my ripped video and add that informations as well just to be safe.

Thanks to both of you for sharing the correct answer. Sorry to Johnathon for not noticing it the first time.

I deleted the tv shows i purchased then downloaded them again but they are still arranged alphabetically and not by episode. This problem is just for my ipad mini. I just recently bought the ipad4 and when i downloaded same tv shows on my new ipad4 they are arranged by episode and by volume which is really great. I tried everything for my ipad mini bit the problem persists- wont arrange by episode.

I have the same issue on my iPad 3. Doesn't matter how much metadata I put in my Archer episodes are all mixed up. I checked the episode number, track number and even the dates when they were released and nothing makes a difference. On iTunes and Apple TV, they are perfect, it's just on iPad.

Found a solution, at least for now. After using all sorts of Metadata apps, if I bulk select all episodes in the season and Get Info, then add the details to all the fields in the Sort By tab, this seems at least for now to make the episodes appear in order on the iPad.

That solution worked fine, until the next time I synced the iPad. Now, all the episodes are back out of order in my TVS how's on the iPad only. All are fine in iTunes, on the Apple TV and even my iPod.

I was having the same issue and frustration. After doing some experimenting, I figured out something that is working for me at least. The video player on the iPad appears to be sorting in the order episodes were downloaded. I had an entire season of shows (23 in all) that I downloaded all at once in iTunes from my purchase history. When I hit the download all icon in the season header, I noticed that iTunes queued the episodes up in alphabetical order. They were also sorted this way once I synced them onto my iPad. I then wiped the season from both the iPad and iTunes and downloaded shows again, this time individually in ordery by episode. When i synced this time to the iPad the episodes were in the correct order.

So, for me at least the iPad appears to be listing shows in whatever order they were downloaded. I hope this helps anyone else experiencing this issue.

I have the same issue. I've also noticed that the episode number shows on the iPad immediately after sync, but later disappears (and then the order, not surprisingly, goes wrong). This seems to be affecting the iPad but now (so I've noticed) iTunes or Apple TV.

More Like This

Incoming Links

This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only.
Apple disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions and conduct of any third parties in connection with or related to your use of the site.
All postings and use of the content on this site are subject to the Apple Support Communities Terms of Use.